Why Longines is the official timekeeper for the Commonwealth Games

The Commonwealth Games can fortify our faith in our country's collective sporting ability in a way that no other multi-sport tournament can. A total medal count of 66, including 23 gold medals and an overall third-place finish - bring out the confetti! While most eyes are fixed on some of the world's most accomplished athletes, little thought is given to the evolution of timekeeping technology - and the mind-boggling amount of data processing that goes on in real time, keeping you updated on the developments in a field where milliseconds are dog years.

This time, much like the last, it was up to Longines to take up the Herculean task: Keep track of 5,000 athletes across 18 sports. Do the math. Actually, leave it to Longines, because you're hopelessly outgunned here.

Serving as a mascot of sorts for Longines' timekeeping efforts is its latest novelty, fresh from Baselworld 2018: The new Conquest VHP Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, which, according to the brand, is the world's most precise quartz-powered watch (VHP stands for Very High Precision, in case you were wondering).

The Conquest VHP's link with timekeeping goes all the way back to 1954, when the first one was released, along with the Chronocinegines - a device that would capture, through a series of images clicked at 1/100 of a second, the exact moment an athlete crossed the finish line. It featured a quartz clock that worked on atomic precision, giving Longines an edge in precision movements. To put things in perspective: The average precision rate for a quartz movement sees a watch lose ?5 seconds a month. In the case of the Conquest VHP, the loss of precision is ?5 seconds a year. In addition to that, the watch has the ability to reset its hands after suffering from severe impact or exposure to a magnetic field, using a GPD (gear position detection) system.

The Commonwealth Games are the second-largest, most-watched event in the world," Longines VP Juan-Carlos Capelli informs me as I pick his brain on just what makes the brand an ideal timekeeper, and how daunting the role can be. "It's about tradition. We were in Perth in 1962. We were in Glasgow last time, and we'll probably be here for the next one." The logistical challenges are considerable, as it turns out. "We've sent for almost 300 trained timekeepers from all over the world, although our engineers were mainly from Switzerland."

The CWG edition of the Conquest VHP gets a simple black dial with concentric engravings and orange indices adorning the hour markers. While there are no visual details highlighting its "official CWG watch" status, the caseback has the official Gold Coast 2018 logo engraved onto it, along with the words "Gold Coast 2018 XXI Commonwealth Games". According to Capelli, "It's the most precise watch in the world." It's also the first quartz device to be used for timekeeping.

It's Day 2 of our tour, and we're being taken around the presently unoccupied 100m running track, just before the track and field athletics events for the day commence.

"Of all the venues, athletes and sports, athletics is the most complex category to deal with because a lot of things happen at the same time," an engineer informs me. "We're always working very closely with the race officials." He brandishes a strange-looking, vaguely gun-shaped device sporting the brand's logo. As expected, it's an electronic starting gun. With real guns becoming increasingly difficult to transport through customs, electronic guns have become the norm. In addition to being easy to carry, they serve an acoustical advantage that regular handguns don't possess: When the starting shot from a traditional gun is fired, the sound takes time to reach the runner on the opposing side. Sure, the difference in time is negligible, but when you're dealing with fractions of milliseconds, it can still be something of a handicap. Instead, electronic guns are hooked up to individual speakers placed behind each athlete on the starting line.

Modern cameras have also come a long way from the 1/100-second-per-frame rate of the Chronocinegines. In order to accurately record the thoracic part of an athlete's body crossing the finish line, 10,000 images are taken in a second - all of which are then fed to the control tower in the stadium. The data is then calibrated and transmitted, within the space of 100 milliseconds, ensuring that viewers receive the information in real time. All of these devices are designed, and all output posts manned, by Longines, of course.

It appears there are more numbers to be crunched here than peak trading hours at Wall Street. But luckily, Longines has a handle on it.